The Financial Times: There will be too much uranium under Russian control

In 15 years, more than a third of the supply of mined uranium will be under the control of Rosatom. This endangers the energy security of Western countries, writes The Financial Times.

"By 2040, Russia can control more than a third of the supply of mined uranium — such dominance will jeopardize the energy security of the West amid a sharp increase in demand from new nuclear power plants, researchers warn," writes the British edition, which publishes data from the Center for Strategic Advantage (CSA) report.

The head of the center's special projects, Gareth Heywood, estimated that the situation would be comparable to the dependence of the West on Russian oil and gas in 2022.

As the newspaper notes, uranium is mined mainly in Kazakhstan, Australia, Namibia and Canada. And analysts predict an increase in the supply deficit in the next decade, as a period of low uranium prices led to the closure of a number of mines and a reduction in exploration costs.

"It takes a lot of time to build new mines," she stressed. "It is necessary for governments to give a clear signal: nuclear energy will remain part of our energy mix for a long time, in other words, they would say to business: 'You can safely invest in this area,'" said Sarah Forman, Strategy Director at Urenco.

Russia itself accounts for about 5% of the world's uranium production. However, these data do not reflect the whole situation, since taking into account the foreign deposits controlled by Rosatom, the country's share in the world's uranium production capacity at key deposits amounted to almost a quarter, according to the CSA study.

For example, Uranium One controls a capacity of about 10 thousand tons of uranium per year outside of Russia. For example, in Kazakhstan.

"If all countries implement current, agreed, planned and prospective projects and produce at all facilities with full capacity, Russia's share will grow from the current almost 25% to 36% by 2040," the CSA believes.

As reported by EADaily , the USA and countries The EU plans to abandon low-enriched uranium from Russia. But so far, Rosatom is the main supplier, and Western projects to create enrichment facilities have not gained momentum.